Dev Update 4th May (Patreon)

Hi All,

Just a quick note to go through a few things.

Firstly, just to confirm that we are back working full-time on episode 24. The only thing I've done on the re-do side of things is finally got my Steam page approved. Although we haven't released anything, at least we now have a Steam presence.  The Steam release won't happen until AFTER we complete and publish Episode 24 on Patreon, but you can still "wishlist" the game. So, if you can spare a minute (takes less than a minute and doesn't cost anything), please add us to your Steam wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287710/Where_the_Heart_is__Season_1/

(Thanks a lot)

I've been pretty happy with the episode 24 progress over the past couple of weeks, but it is slow going as I try to wrap up some threads. Due to the amount of options / choices, we have previously given, it means that I need to write multiple versions of each scene (sometimes 2 versions, sometimes 20 versions), so it's testing my pathing skills to the max. :)

Just as an example...if we take the Beach House (BH) living arrangements (and whether or not you are dating the Beach house occupants (Y =dating, N = not dating and P = Previously dated), there are 25 different possibilities (or inputs) at the start of the scene:

That doesn't mean I have to write 25 different scenes but it does mean that I have to account for the differences as it will require many dialog tweaks & pathing differences.  And these aren't the only inputs in this scene as we also have to account for different decisions that were taken during the last beach scene (don't want to give too much away but one example is which one of Bella/Jo you slept with on the last night in the beach house or whom you are dating casually versus in love with).

And ALL of these inputs will also have different OUTPUTs depending on what choices you make in episode 24 in addition to previous decisions you have made (e.g. are you dating Elaine, did you give her the house, did you previously lie about stuff....).

And then later in the episode, when MC fills Katie and Jenna in on the will conditions   beach house discussion, they will also have a response to the various different outputs and that will also be influenced by previous Katie/Jenna decisions (i.e. dating / not dating, etc.)

So, as you can imagine...it is nearly killing me to write this shit. :) My next game (if we ever get there) will definitely NOT have this amount of meaningful choices. :)

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No specific details but some minor spoilers below about decision making, so if you don't want ANY hint of things to come, then skip this section (surrounded by ****)

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End game: Harem or no Harem? (*Stop reading if you do not want any details on the possibilities of multi-woman endings.*)

I know this is going to open up a can of worms as some people have ignored ALL the clues/warnings, but everything described below should be consistent with what I have written and what I have previously stated/hinted.  Let me know if you have any info to the contrary that I (me personally) has written.

I have always stated that my definition of a HAREM ending is the MC ending up with ALL women, happily sharing the MC and ALL knowing about each other. And I have also stated that the canon ending for WTHI will NOT have this type of HAREM ending.  We may include this in a bonus non-canon fantasy epilogue once we complete the canon endings, but the official ending will not have a FULL HAREM as this just wouldn't make sense and it would make ALL decision making through the game seem pointless.  However, this does not mean that you will be FORCED to just choose one final solo/duo relationship.

Without giving too much away...it WILL be possible to finish the full game (episode 25) STILL dating a LOT of the women (Spoiler: Almost ALL) but it will mean jumping through a LOT of hoops / making the correct decisions throughout the whole game.  And it will mean that you will still be cheating/ keeping some women from ever finding out (obviously), while getting others to agree to share.

It will NOT be possible to get to the end, still dating ALL of the women, as there are some combos that just would not be feasible... (i.e. pairings who would never agree to share AND where it would not be possible to date both without either party finding out.)

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There is probably enough here to gather a lot of inputs/ questions (and the usual small scattering of hatemail : ) ), so I'll leave the update as is and will go into some more EP24 details (including teasers) in my next post.

Comments/ questions / small doses of rage are welcome in the comments section below or feel free to send me  a private message and I'll get back to everyone.

Thanks,

CG